manpe

Didn't Mahrez?

Not really, I either thought you were dissing or forgot FAC's importance. But fair enough, in terms of the league I can understand your point and it's true.

It means we get to play in the FA Cup final regardless if we win this one or not.

That's quite a simplistic view, "he needs to be the dominant player on the pitch regardless...". Did you see how we were playing in those big games under Mourinho? Even Messi can't do it alone when isolated without support and played as auxiliary full-back. Let's see how he fares in a proper team shape.

Yup. Sounds like the minimum a striker of our team's stature should be doing.

Wouldn't call it "fantastic". It was the minimum a striker should be capable of doing, we just think it was fantastic because we have had to watch Diego screw up his moves for months now.

He was doing well in a back 4 in Mourinho's low block negative tactics. JT could still probably play in that system on a decent level, but not in Conte's build-from-the-back system. If we look beyond the injury, I doubt he has the attributes to play there to full effect. Great athlete, good defender, questionable fit for the team. Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Yes, I understood you said it in regard to our current squad. That last part of my post was aimed at people like the one who is afraid of losing him to Barca, Juve or PSG

What evidence is there to support that? He's played only one (or two?) games in our back 3, so by default there is not enough data to make such claims. On the other hand Azpi-Luiz-GC have played almost every game and got us top. And remember, the only reason Nathan played was because Cahill was sick. Ake played very well, but I'm not surprised to see that he's being heavily overhyped now like always when a youngster has a solid game. We've seen this countless times before, so I'd contain that excitement for now if I were you. My prediction is that next season he will probably be loaned out again or benched (if he's lucky) and used sparingly in cup games. His main purpose will be filling that HG role once JT and Bego leave. I might sound pessimistic, but when thinking realistically, then I don't see him ever being our starting CB, LWB/LB or CM.. we will upgrade those positions significantly and Ake will be lucky to make the bench imo. I'd love to be proven wrong though, but it is up to Nathan to be better than the options available in the squad and market.

LEGEND

Good decision by Conte not to let him take it. 1) Willian is more suited for high pressure occasions like this 2) Had he missed, it would undo all the good work he'd done in that game to gain some confidence. In a deadbeat League Cup game against a League 1 side when 4-0 up? Sure, Billy the masseur can take it, but FA Cup semi-final against your closest rival to go ahead? No way, your best man must take it. He had a good game without scoring, that is enough.

Class from Hazard. Kante has been the dominant midfielder for two different champions two years running in his first two seasons(!) in England. Last year Mahrez won it, now he's nowhere, I think Kante deserves to win it now by showing he is not a one season wonder. Mahrez and Eden are flashy players and people notice them more, Hazard too deserves it for sure, but without Kante we'd be nowhere near 1st and LCFC wouldn't have been anywhere near 1st last season. I'd be okay with either of them winning and sharing the plaudits between them.

Yeah noticed it on highlights, he actually dribbled past Costa, his own teammate Glad he did, there was no way Costa was gonna do anything useful in that position, he was back to goal and his only options would have been to play it back to the flank or do some kind of 1-2 flick back to Hazard, which wouldn't have worked with him.

Haha that line-up is embarrassing.

Yeah, Costa was telling Alonso afterwards to speak up when he's in a better position. He didn't hear him unfortunately.

Tbf he wasn't useless today. He won a few headers on the defensive end, Drogba got lots of praise for that. And he wasn't that bad up front either, but of course that headed miss was bad.

Voted Hazard MOTM, because he made the difference. Goal and assist, what an impact!

NEMANJAAAAAAAAAAAA WHAT A STRIKE!!!!! Who is the captain tonight? Haven't noticed.

Hazard the difference maker.

I like how somebody said that his role was vital, but the player was average. We can upgrade.

Worldie pass and finish, unfortunately for us

What, really?

Seriously not the time to start experimenting like that.

@Spike What was your username before it became just "Spike"? I can't remember, it's driving me nuts. Are you a fan of Spike Lee?

You both are right in my mind. On one hand it is wrong to be racist, period. If there is anybody around or there isn't, morally it is wrong regardless. Do I think it is also a non-issue if a racist is venting him/herself in an environment where he/she (pc ftw) can't harm the subject of his/her ignorance? Yes I do. Real racism is not a non-issue; an isolated incident with a thick bastard giving hate speech is an issue only for him/her.